Federal judge slaps Kentucky teachers’ union’s lock on school board races

WAVE-3 TV reports a federal judge has ruled Kentucky’s special interest election law that limited individuals’ contributions to candidates for local school board races is unconstitutional. The law restricted contributions from individuals to $100 while the union could give hundreds of thousands to its chosen candidates. That unbalanced rule gave the state’s teachers’ union a hugely unfair advantage in controlling those political school board races.

U.S. District Judge Danny C. Reeves noted that in 2008 the Jefferson County Teachers Association spent nearly $150,000 to support one candidate for the Jefferson County School Board. He also said the union spent "well over $100,000" in support of other individual candidates in other races. "In contrast", Reeves wrote, "candidates who rely on individual donations must raise support in $100 increments."

Basically, under Kentucky’s crazy rules, a candidate who wanted to oppose the teachers’ union’s candidate had to find at least 1,000 donors who each would give the maximum of $100 in order to compete. This unfair situation led to a union lock on the Jefferson County School Board and school boards in a number of other parts of Kentucky while the rights of students and parents got trampled.

The judge’s ruling is only temporary, applying to this year’s elections, but let’s hope the injunction becomes permanent since our teachers’ union-dominated legislature so far has been unwilling to end this travesty.